Secretary Raffensperger Recognizes Georgia Election Officials with "EAGLE" Award
Athens, GA - In recognition of excellence in election administration in counties across Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the creation of the Georgia Election Administration Golden Leader in Excellence (EAGLE) Award at the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO) Conference. The EAGLE Award honors the innovations, achievements and best practices of county election offices to ensure safe, secure, accessible, and accurate elections provided transparently to Georgia’s voters.
Muscogee and Glynn Counties were recognized with the EAGLE Awards by Secretary Raffensperger at the GAVREO Conference.
Muscogee County is recognized with an EAGLE Award for their outstanding work in Election Security and Innovation, specifically their Election Day Support and Absentee Ballot Management processes. Muscogee’s Area Managers Program ensures quick responses to Election Day events, and their Absentee Ballot Management processes include multiple layers of accountability to ensure secure, accurate, and fair elections.
Glynn County is recognized with an EAGLE Award for their outstanding achievements in Election Security and Innovation, specifically their many advancements to the county’s elections infrastructure. Their election facility upgrades emphasize election security and personnel safety, and the many enhancements represent a countywide commitment to secure, accurate, and fair elections.
“We have tremendous work being done all around the state. We aim to highlight that work, promote a culture where we support and learn from each other, and instill complete confidence in the voters of Georgia”, said Secretary Raffensperger.
The EAGLE Award will be presented monthly in 2024 to counties that have exhibited excellence in their operations, recognizing achievements in Election Security, Innovation, Accuracy, Accessibility, and Voter Education.
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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #1 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.